Mack was paid over $3M - Ridiculous. There is a lot of waste at Baylor is starts with the excessive salaries for the Administration and staff. Add to the fact that carrying all those Boards members comes at an expense as well.

https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/organizations/741159753

Mack was making more than Chris Del Conte at UT, which I believe is one of the wealthiest athletic department in the country if not the wealthiest. He was making more than the A&M AD as well. He was making almost 2x as much as the TCU AD and nearly 50% more than the USC AD for a couple of private school comparisons.

Frankly if we pay what we paid to Mack, make a run at the USC AD and HC combo.

Meanwhile... crickets chirping for the next "AD".

PartyBear said:

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Mack was making more than Chris Del Conte at UT, which I believe is one of the wealthiest athletic department in the country if not the wealthiest. He was making more than the A&M AD as well. He was making almost 2x as much as the TCU AD and nearly 50% more than the USC AD for a couple of private school comparisons.

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If this is true, I'm speechless. That would be unbelievable.

Mack Rhodes took Baylor for a ride. Baylor needs to cut this in half or to a third, at least.

Robert Wilson said:

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PartyBear said:

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Mack was making more than Chris Del Conte at UT, which I believe is one of the wealthiest athletic department in the country if not the wealthiest. He was making more than the A&M AD as well. He was making almost 2x as much as the TCU AD and nearly 50% more than the USC AD for a couple of private school comparisons.

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If this is true, I'm speechless. That would be unbelievable.

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I did use google and the result gave me figures which I compared to Baylor's return posted somewhere here that had Rhoades compensation listed.

PacificBear said:

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Mack wanted dave gone last year. Linda said no.

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what is your source on that?

Standing by him after the debacle of the 3-9 '23 season, but then after '24 - going 8-5 with a 6 game win streak - deciding it was finally time? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

I am extremely skeptical of that claim as well.

Baylorbears111 said:

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Mishandling of initial NIL philosophy and approach.

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Whatever combination of folks deserve the blame for this specific issue, this is one of the biggest mistakes in the history of the Baylor football program.

Not going all-in on NIL after 2021 was a massive error, at both the tactical and strategic levels.

I don't mean that any BMDs owed Baylor one red cent of their money...but rather that the "we won't pay competitive market rates but instead give every player the same $" approach was doomed to failure from the start in a competitive labor market. Mack's role was to see that, and avoid that pitfall.

I think that Leadership* approved of that terrible approach because of Scandal-related litigation that was still in process at that time. I assume they were attempting to avoid any possible legal/regulatory issues and negative PR of any type.

Or maybe Dave's stated rationale (wanting to avoid players with 'transactional' mindsets) really was the whole reason - maybe he & Leadership really thought that a bunch of high-character mediocre-talent kids would make a stronger football roster than high-talent kids who might need some help in character building from the coaching and support staffs.

Either way, massive miscalculation with major consequences.





*when I use capital "L" in Leadership, I'm referring to the Holy Trinity of AD, Prez, and BOR.

My memory is not as good as it used to be, but didn't the idea of paying everyone the same start at Tech. I think I recall when they said everyone on the roster was getting whatever and that set off alarms all over this board. but that was at the time when the thing (NIL) hadn't gotten out of control yet and no one really understood what you could and couldn't do...whether you were suppose to be able to do it or not.

PartyBear said:

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I am extremely skeptical of that claim as well.

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I'm not. Whatever chicken **** sneak reported Mack's paramour could surly find something on Dave that Linda would find to release him.

I was all in on releasing Mack. Now I regret that decision seeing what happened. If Mack stayed and fired Aranda we would be in better shape. Firing Mack and keeping Aranda was the worst possible happening.

She has admitted donors wanted Dave gone so she is the reason he is still here,

Was he fired or did he resign? I thought the word was he resigned. Now, we, at least I, don't know if the "resigned" was true or just to look good, but we shouldn't be making up scenarios on data that is not fact. If shown to be fact, then fine.

Obviously I have no clue but a safe bet would be he was given the option to resign or be fired. I mean somewhere back there Linda said he violated our Christian Mission which can mean many things to many people.

To me it was un Christian to fire him. It was more like "ummmmmmm" did he really?

Dave has said the NIL failure was on him for the reasons you listed above.

Mack in had nothing to do with that.

Drew did it totally opposite of Dave.

Stefano DiMera said:

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Dave has said the NIL failure was on him for the reasons you listed above.

Mack in had nothing to do with that.

Drew did it totally opposite of Dave.

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It was absolutely Mack's job to override that level of terrible decision making. If Dave put his foot down over it, then he definitely should have been fired by the end of the '23 season. Either way, Mack failed badly as the AD on that one.

Bearknuckle said:

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If Dave put his foot down ...

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I mean, what are the odds of that. Would be the most demonstrative act I've ever seen out of him.

Robert Wilson said:

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Bearknuckle said:

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If Dave put his foot down ...

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I mean, what are the odds of that. Would be the most demonstrative act I've ever seen out of him.

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Yeah it's hard to believe that Dave proffered the terrible approach all by himself and Mack & Linda just said "sounds great" without having their own separate rationale for supporting it.

If I believed in the most caricatured version of Linda per this site (I don't), I could see her just going along with it...but Mack as a Big Boy AD should absolutely have known that a competitive labor market required a radically different approach. And I suspect Linda knew that too...

...thus my supposition that regardless of whether Dave truly dreamt it up by himself or not, it was the approach *approved by Leadership* for the reasons given above.

Each coach is responsible for how they administer their NIL funds.. That's everywhere.

No AD or lol a university president is involved in determining who gets what.

As I've said million times Dave is on record saying he botched that. That's between the head coach and general manager.

Stefano DiMera said:

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Each coach is responsible for how they administer their NIL funds.. That's everywhere.

No AD or lol a university president is involved in determining who gets what.

As I've said million times Dave is on record saying he botched that.

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I'm very well aware that Dave has publicly taken all of the blame.

As for responsibility being with the HC and he alone...IIRC we have two GM positions with support staff (one for FB and the other for all other sports basically), because NIL/roster budgeting takes a bunch of folks working in concert. Worth noting that NFL HCs aren't responsible for contract negotiations with players.

Further, The AD is obviously the HC's boss, and it's literally his job to keep the HC from making clearly catastrophic decisions, and to fire him if he refuses. Mike Gundy got fired early this past season for the same core issue: refusal to embrace the "transactional relationships" era we're now in.

Other than Mike Gundy, Dave has to have been the only coach in America to have apparently said the equivalent of "$100? No thanks, I only need $50." regarding NIL budgets. It was absolutely Mack's job to convince him how unwise his strategy was, or to move on from him...if it was indeed Dave's decision.

I place that emphasis on the last bit there because the only way Dave's disastrous initial approach could have moved forward for two full seasons is because Leadership approved.

The "Why" of that approval is crucial, but we'll likely never know the full rationale behind it.

EDIT(add): I never said or even implied that Linda had direct input/oversight to the NIL budgeting process. But it was absolutely within her purview to approve of the strategic level of approach to NIL (communism vs free market labor valuations). And so on with the Board. One of the core goals of management/leadership/oversight in any org is to help prevent exactly that sort of catastrophic strategic decision making.

So again, it seems to me that either our NIL approach was terribly misguided, or we had overriding reasons for letting such a mistake happen. I lean towards the latter given how Baylor has operated the program post-Briles.

You know what they say about hindsight.

I don't think you want an AD that meddles like a Jerry Jones does with the Cowboys.

Where an AD meddles is in cases of recruiting or doing things that could lead to NCAA violations.

I wish Ian McCaw had meddled with Briles.

But y'all arguing about NIL is a waste of time
That's a smokescreen by Aranda. NIL has nothing to do with us not able to tackle .. missing assignments.. or execution.. he can't coach..

Stefano DiMera said:

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You know what they say about hindsight.

I don't think you want an AD that meddles like a Jerry Jones does with the Cowboys.

Where an AD meddles is in cases of recruiting or doing things that could lead to NCAA violations.

I wish Ian McCaw had meddled with Briles.

But y'all arguing about NIL is a waste of time
That's a smokescreen by Aranda. NIL has nothing to do with us not able to tackle .. missing assignments.. or execution.. he can't coach..

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"Meddling"...your choice of words. I don't think adhering to your managerial responsibilities is 'meddling', but to each their own. And making sure the HC doesn't steer the program into the rocks is a central responsibility of the AD - I don't think that's debatable.

Jerry level meddling would be Mack picking which players to target or Linda micromanaging contract negotiations. The President should do neither, while the AD should be engaged with the strategies and tactics of both while allowing his HC and GM (and their respective support staffs) to execute the plan within his oversight.

But I am glad to see that you indirectly conceded the point that in professional sports, the person managing contract negotiations *is* (and should be!) a different person than the Head Coach (i.e. that's the GM's role).

I honestly don't know if our Football GM (Aaron Hunt) reports directly to Dave or the AD, but ultimately for better or worse the AD still outranks the HC in terms of final decision making. Goes up the chain of command from AD to Prez to BOR, so there's just no way to exclude Mack and the rest of the Leadership from some portion of the blame here. Especially given that a successful football program is crucial to the University's long term core goals (maintaining enrollment goals and building the Brand).

So some level of 'meddling' absolutely should have occurred in 2022-23. But it didn't.

We're missing tackles and assignments because we took a terrible approach to roster building during that period and didn't do a total roster overhaul between '24 and '25 to actually address the gaps that terrible approach created.

Whether we failed to seek adequate booster support to do so, or couldn't secure it because of damaged relationships - or some third thing - I have no idea.

Stefano DiMera said:

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But y'all arguing about NIL is a waste of time
That's a smokescreen by Aranda. NIL has nothing to do with us not able to tackle .. missing assignments.. or execution.. he can't coach..

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I don't understand why this is still one the main arguments. Yes, Dave completely screwed that up by being a foolish idealistic guy. Yes it was fireable. Mack screwed it up by constantly fighting it publicly at every turn for the first year and half.

But.. the roster this year wasn't bad. What players on this roster have gotten signicantly better being here? Literally the only players with any juice in 23' were walk on Josh Cameron and a true freshman coming from small divison hs football in Pendergrass. These were literally the only guys with any pop on the entire roster that year.. and they were green. That is fireable and almost impossible to do.

Any decent coach starting winter 23' till now would have probably won 9 in 24' and either 9 or 10 in 25'. Guy has no eye for talent and no ability to teach and develop. RB and WR are the only guys who are showing some progression on the field.

Exactly.. NIL is not even in the same stratosphere in OUR situation as is player development.

Coincidentally those two positions you mentioned are probably our two best coaches on staff .

This guy often throws a lot of things out there to see what sticks.

So I don't know how much truth is here…but I can definitely see things heading that direction.

Not a great time for our program to be lost at sea.

Industry forecasters are warning conference leaders that there is only going to be big money for three conferences in the next negotiation window. 60 to 70 teams are going to get tier one TV money. Everyone else is getting scraps.

— MHver3 (@MHver3) December 2, 2025

Their are about 68 teams that are in P4 right now.

Aliceinbubbleland said:

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Obviously I have no clue but a safe bet would be he was given the option to resign or be fired. I mean somewhere back there Linda said he violated our Christian Mission which can mean many things to many people.

To me it was un Christian to fire him. It was more like "ummmmmmm" did he really?

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Obviously.

PartyBear said:

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Their are about 68 teams that are in P4 right now.

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There are definitely some unserious football programs in that mix of 68. Not sure if they would be "grandfathered" in.

Bearknuckle said:

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Stefano DiMera said:

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Dave has said the NIL failure was on him for the reasons you listed above.

Mack in had nothing to do with that.

Drew did it totally opposite of Dave.

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It was absolutely Mack's job to override that level of terrible decision making. If Dave put his foot down over it, then he definitely should have been fired by the end of the '23 season. Either way, Mack failed badly as the AD on that one.

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It's clear to me that when it came to NIL, Dave and Mack were asleep and nobody in the Baylor administration could help because they they also were tone deaf to it all. Snooze you lose and we have

Yall seem to forget Baylor was opposed to NiL the first couple of years. Linda and Mack as well I believe testified against it in a Senate hearing

PartyBear said:

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Yall seem to forget Baylor was opposed to NiL the first couple of years. Linda and Mack as well I believe testified against it in a Senate hearing

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Cody Campbell also has railed against 'buying wins' while simultaneously buying wins.

It is possible to hope (lobby for) the best while preparing for the worst (NIL wild west).

boognish_bear said:

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This guy often throws a lot of things out there to see what sticks.

So I don't know how much truth is here…but I can definitely see things heading that direction.

Not a great time for our program to be lost at sea.

Industry forecasters are warning conference leaders that there is only going to be big money for three conferences in the next negotiation window. 60 to 70 teams are going to get tier one TV money. Everyone else is getting scraps.

— MHver3 (@MHver3) December 2, 2025

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Totally could see this happening.

Besides us, which Big 12 members would be on the outside looking in?

Pretty much all the outcasts are coming from the Big 12 and ACC.

Realitybites said:

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boognish_bear said:

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This guy often throws a lot of things out there to see what sticks.

So I don't know how much truth is here…but I can definitely see things heading that direction.

Not a great time for our program to be lost at sea.

Industry forecasters are warning conference leaders that there is only going to be big money for three conferences in the next negotiation window. 60 to 70 teams are going to get tier one TV money. Everyone else is getting scraps.

— MHver3 (@MHver3) December 2, 2025

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Totally could see this happening.

Besides us, which Big 12 members would be on the outside looking in?

Pretty much all the outcasts are coming from the Big 12 and ACC.

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I think one of the B12 or ACC will survive. The ACC getting poached might help us. Our complete and total incompetence will not help us.

boognish_bear said:

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This guy often throws a lot of things out there to see what sticks.

So I don't know how much truth is here…but I can definitely see things heading that direction.

Not a great time for our program to be lost at sea.

Industry forecasters are warning conference leaders that there is only going to be big money for three conferences in the next negotiation window. 60 to 70 teams are going to get tier one TV money. Everyone else is getting scraps.

— MHver3 (@MHver3) December 2, 2025

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Laughable.

1) he got everything wrong on each round of realignment.
2) even the WVU people think he is a joke
3) no one in broadcast forecasts with specific numbers. They offer ranges of likely outcomes and those come with at least 214 disclaimers.
4) broadcasters are still watching Congress with one eye.
5) any guesses before the WBD "public auction" fully plays out is nonsense

and no one will have any real clue until the first domino falls in the next round of negotiations (that item will indicate appetite and wallet).

He could be off the wall but things are definitely headed in that direction. Hopefully geography will play a roll in realignment.

It will all come down to what ESPN, FOX, B1G and SEC want to do. There is no way to convince me ESPN didn't have a hand in UT and OU sliding away to SEC. I'd love to hear the phone calls between those AD's and Network executives

Meanwhile, AD search & announcement… Crickets chirping.